Four Companies That Could Fall In 2016

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The New Year is a time for fresh starts and renewed optimism. For some companies, however, it represents the start of another year of pressure and survival.

Let's look at four companies that could have problems this year.

Yahoo

Under Marissa Mayer's guidance, Yahoo's core business valuation has fallen from around $7 billion to $500 million. The company's failings, however, shouldn't be blamed purely on Mayer.

New technologies gave startups more scope to develop rival products, which eventually culminated in it losing marketshare in areas it once dominated. As Nicholas Carlson states: 'Yahoo was losing out to eBay in auctions, Google in search and Craigslist in classifieds. Then Facebook came along, replacing Yahoo as the home page for millions of people.'

The company's relevance as a major technology player has been wavering for some time. Without its stake in Alibaba, it’s clear that the company has been losing money year-on-year. There are two likely outcomes for Yahoo; it will either be taken over or its executives will sell its Alibaba holdings to fuel investment.

Tidal

In an anonymous survey of 50 music executives conducted by Billboard, it was revealed that 71% of respondents felt that Tidal would fail within a year.

Described by IBT as the 'biggest blunder in Jay-Z's career' it recently came to light that the service would need 'significant capital injections' and 'unprecedented' subscriber growth to stay afloat.

After its release was poorly received - newspapers around the world called it 'pompous' and 'pretentious' - it seems that the service will either need to rethink its business model or accept defeat.

Blackberry OS

Blackberry, according to a number of sources, has been close to failure for some time. On ArsTechnica's rundown, however, they were keen to point out that 2016 could see the end of Blackberry's OS, not the company itself.

Since 2014, when Blackberry announced it would become compatible with Android, it's been destined to dump its own OS. The release of the Priv in 2015 - which is an all-android phone - went to prove this further.

While Blackberry will continue to survive, 2016 should be the year its OS falls by the wayside.

Pandora

Pandora is unlikely to fall off completely, but 2016 will be a make-or-break year for the music streaming service. Pandora differs from Tidal in so much as it's an online radio service, not giving users the opportunity to choose specific tracks.

'The fundamental challenge for Pandora is now they've got increasing royalty payments and slowing user growth driven by growing competition,' says Research Analyst, Richard Greenfield, reflecting the recent ruling which saw the Copyright Royalty Board raise the amount of money services like Pandora have to pay per 100 songs. The decision will see the rate rise from 14 cents to 17 cents.

An outdated business model, as well as pressure from Spotify and Apple Music, might mean that Pandora will have to change if it's to survive.